A Fine Proposal
by coolbyrne
Summary: Jane shrugged. "Seems simple. You're sitting over there pooh-poohing the way Casey proposed. I'm curious how you'd do it so much better."


TITLE: A Fine Proposal

AUTHOR: coolbyrne

SUMMARY: Jane shrugged. "Seems simple. You're sitting over there pooh-poohing the way Casey proposed. I'm curious how you'd do it so much better."

A/N: Who proposes to a woman on their lunch break during a child abduction case? Who does that? And who drops the ring into the palm of the woman they want to marry and basically says, "Wear it for a bit and see if you like it."? Worst. Proposal. Ever. So while I feel the characters here are slightly OOC, I tried to soothe my outrage with this fic. Thanks to RomanMachine/happycamper5 for the beta and accepting my proposal.

...

"I feel like I should apologize."

The beer bottle stopped right before it reached her lips. With a frown, Jane looked across the table at the pathologist. They had once again found quiet comfort at The Dirty Robber after a particularly gruelling week and were contently winding down in each other's company when Maura revealed her thought.

"Did you switch my coffee with decaf this morning?"

Maura's eyes widened. "What? No, I would never do that."

Jane smiled at her honesty. "Then why should you apologize?"

Gazing into her wine glass, Maura shrugged. "I feel, as your best friend, that I haven't been supportive enough over your... 'engagement'."

Jane smirked and took a sip of her beer. "I love how you put air quotes around 'engagement'."

"I did not!" she protested. At Jane's raised eyebrow, she conceded, "Okay, maybe. But that's my point- I don't know what to call it because we haven't really talked about it." She reached over and lightly tapped Jane's hand. "So tell me all about it. I want to support you."

The open smile of Maura Isles made better souls crumble and Jane knew she couldn't resist the invitation, though she gave it one last feeble attempt. "Mauraaaa..."

"Tell me."

With an exaggerated sigh, Jane leaned forward and said, "He put together a picnic lunch and we went to the park. We talked about work and the future. About sacrifice." Her smile was tinged with sadness. "Then," she falsely brightened, "he pulled a ring from his pocket. I was shocked. I didn't know what to say." She took another pull of her beer. "Then he told me to wear the ring for a while, see how it felt on my finger."

Maura nodded. "That's why you were wearing it when you came into the lab that afternoon."

A soft, "Awww," escaped Jane's lips and she covered Maura's hands with her own. "I'm sorry about that."

Dismissing the apology with a shake of her head, the blonde said, "It was a difficult day for both of us."

"Yeah, it was." They were silent for a moment, but something in the doctor's expression caught Jane's attention. "What is it?"

"Sorry," she asked, returning from her thoughts.

"Your big brain is creating smoke. What is it?"

Maura made a face. "It's nothing."

"Maura..."

She pulled her hands out from under the detective's and took a delicate sip of her wine. Without looking up, she remarked, "I just didn't imagine that's how someone would propose to you." Maura looked off to the side and replayed Jane's story in her mind. "Wait," she said with a frown, "he did propose to you, didn't he?"

Jane fidgeted in her seat. "Well, not in so many words, no." She withered under Maura's probing, patient gaze. "He... he showed his intentions by giving me a ring."

"Which he didn't actually put on your finger."

"I didn't know if I wanted it on my finger."

"But you put it on later."

"Yes."

"And now you're not wearing it."

Jane glanced down at her left hand. "No," she whispered. "Maura... I don't know what you want me to say."

"You don't have to say anything to me, Jane. It's Casey who's waiting for you to say something." She swirled her wine gently in her glass. "Of course, had he asked you a question that required a 'yes' or 'no' answer, that might have helped."

Jane's eyes narrowed. There was a sharpness to her friend's voice that seemed out of place, and she couldn't help but respond in kind. Jane sat back and crossed her arms. "Not everyone wants the horse-drawn carriage and the man-on-bended-knee, Maura."

She tilted her head at the veiled accusation. "Is that what you think I want, Jane?" The brunette didn't respond. Maura waved away the silence. "Besides, it's not about everyone; it's about you and how someone proposes to you."

"And how exactly would you have proposed to me?"

The question startled the blonde. "I... I'm not sure I understand what you're asking."

Jane shrugged. "Seems simple. You're sitting over there pooh-poohing the way Casey proposed. I'm curious how you'd do it so much better."

Maura knew that the nonchalantness of her remark didn't disguise the fact that a gauntlet of sorts had been thrown down between them. _Put up or shut up_, as the detective might say. Sitting straight, with shoulders back and chin up, Maura looked directly across the table. _Challenge accepted_.

"Well, for one thing, I wouldn't propose to you in the park."

The brunette rolled her eyes. "Not romantic enough for you?"

"It has no meaning to us," Maura replied. "Or does it have a special meaning to you and Casey?" She knew the question was a rhetorical one. Looking around the bar, she smiled. "I'd propose to you here."

"Here?" Jane repeated incredulously. "At the Robber? How romantic!"

She let the sarcasm roll off without comment. "It's the first place you and I went together, outside of work. It's the place we always come to, either with friends or family or when we need time away from both. I will never come here and not think of you, Jane. So yes, I'd propose to you here." She waited for another sarcastic response, but when none came, she continued. "I'd choose a day like today, a moment like right now, not on a lunch break during a case. The last thing I would want is for you to ever associate the day with the abduction of a child. I know it would be difficult to find the right moment- our jobs don't seem to have an abundance of them- but I would want to make it as much of our own as possible."

She moved her glass of wine to the side, and rested her hands on the table, palms up, gesturing for Jane's hands. The detective made a face but relented, laying her hands on top of Maura's. The doctor studied them intently, as if divining her next words.

"A proposal really is what it sounds like," she began to explain. "I'm proposing- I'm suggesting- why we should get married, why we should spend the rest of our lives together. Really, it's a sales pitch. How romantic, I know," she looked up as she repeated Jane's early words. The brunette couldn't hide the twitch of a smile and it gave Maura permission to continue. "I need to sell you on the reason why it's in your best interest to forsake yourself to me."

"I'm not a good salesman," Jane warned.

"No, you don't have to be," Maura told her. "I'm the one proposing, so I already know why I want to spend the rest of my life with you. You're beautiful-" she squeezed Jane's hands as the woman rolled her eyes at the compliment "You're beautiful and brave, and you bring a compassion and joy to my life that I never want to be without. The onus is on me to convince you that marrying me would be worth it. We're talking a lifetime. So..." she squeezed her hands again and stroked an index finger over the thin white scars. "I would tell you that I will always hold you above all others; that I will always lift you up when you fall. I will always kiss away your fears and find a reason to make you laugh every day. I will be your champion until my last breath and make it my life's purpose to memorize every line and curve of your face." The bar seemed to have gone absolutely still. Maura took the ring off the middle finger of her right hand. "Then, to summarize my proposal, I would simply say, 'I love you'. And while you're in a state of shock, I'd slip the ring on." With a shaky laugh, she did just that, and slid the ring onto Jane's ring finger. Spurred on by her uncustomary boldness, she lifted Jane's hand and kissed the ring, before laying it back on the table. She sat back and took a long drink of her wine.

"Yes."

Maura's eyes widened over the rim of her glass. "What?"

Jane blinked, as if awakening from a dream. She too used her drink as a cover for the moment. "I would totally say yes to that," she admitted with a weak laugh. "Wait," she said, remembering Maura's earlier accusation, "there wasn't a question in there that required a 'yes' or 'no' answer."

She bit back a smirk, the world slowly stabilizing again. "And yet you immediately said 'yes'," she remarked, noticing the other woman hadn't bothered taking off the ring.

"It was a pretty damn good sales pitch," the detective admitted. Another sip of her drink loosened her tongue enough to say, "I have a sales pitch." She leaned forward conspiratorially. "If one of us isn't married by the time we're 40, we marry each other."

Maura turned her head to the side, as if to determine the seriousness of Jane's comment. She was surprised to see no deception in the dark brown eyes. "You do know that's less than 3 years from now."

"I know."

"Is this your way of telling me you're marrying Casey?"

"No," she frowned. "Why would you say that?"

She laughed. "Because if you don't marry Casey, in all likelihood, you'll have to marry me."

"Please," Jane scoffed, "if I don't find someone in the next 3 years, you certainly will."

"So you're offering an empty proposal."

"No, I think I'm serious."

Maura's mouth twitched in amusement. "You think you're serious? This just sounds better and better."

"Fiiiiine," Jane drew out with a dramatic sigh. "In 3 years from now, will you marry me, Maura?"

Suddenly, the air seemed to leave the room. Though the question was worded in jest, the tone had a quiet gravity to it. "You know, you might want to be careful," Maura warned softly. "In some countries, a verbal agreement is a legal and binding one." She fully expected the brunette to volley with something sarcastic, but was startled when she received no such response. Instead, she was faced with an almost anxious gaze. Maura considered the words and the implications.

"Yes."

...


End file.
